Three Lives of Belair Plantation: Colonial Governor’s Retreat to Gentleman Farmer’s Racing Stable

Summary

Belair began in the 1740s as the plantation of Samuel Ogle, one of Maryland’s proprietary governors and a prominent member of one of the colony’s most influential extended families. Field archaeology and archival research identified two significant alterations to the mansion and curtilage: removal of surrounding dependencies and construction of a telescoping addition in the early 19th-century, and removal of the addition and construction of flanking hyphens and wings in the early 20th century, as well as construction or reconstruction of terraces. The early 20th-century alterations, to current sensibilities, created a truer statement of Palladian architectural principles than did Ogle’s original design. This statement, however, came at a time when the owners transformed the plantation-cum-farm into a retreat and stable for racing horses.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• CONSTRUCTING THE PAST: An examination of manipulated historical landscapes at historic sites.   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2017

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 175